I think we are seeing the last of the Olympic games

Dave68124

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I caught this post about the cost of the games - $51B for the host country - are you f'n kidding me? Then to see the pictures of what happens to some or all of the facilities after the fact. Being a finance guy, I have no idea how you EVER make the numbers work without some completely ludicrous assumptions.

My guess is within the next decade, you will have most countries not willing to bid on the games or at least the games as they have been currently formatted. One location, two weeks. I could see a multi-location games that utilize current facilities and potentially spread over a longer period of time.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/10/after-the-games-go-17-haunting-abandoned-olympic-venues/21448848/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058&
 

soggycrow

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I heard a story on the radio about how host countries are addressing this. E.g. one of the indoor arenas in Rio will provide raw materials for 4 elementary schools. They've got plans for how to chop down an 80,000 seat stadium to 20,000 sets after an Olympics. No more of those giant stadiums like in Beijing, the one that looks like a big bug cocoon.
 

Martin Mayers

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I caught this post about the cost of the games - $51B for the host country - are you f'n kidding me? Then to see the pictures of what happens to some or all of the facilities after the fact. Being a finance guy, I have no idea how you EVER make the numbers work without some completely ludicrous assumptions.

My guess is within the next decade, you will have most countries not willing to bid on the games or at least the games as they have been currently formatted. One location, two weeks. I could see a multi-location games that utilize current facilities and potentially spread over a longer period of time.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/10/after-the-games-go-17-haunting-abandoned-olympic-venues/21448848/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058&
Or they'll start to get cycled around countries already with the infrastructure.

I think we, and I'm sure the USA to, and many West European countries, could probably host the Olympics tomorrow with all the top class facilities here. And to be honest countries who have proven they can do it well should expect to host it more than once in a generation IMHO.

The really dopey bollocks thing about Rio is that, because they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, many of the stadiums are half empty, most worrying the athletics. Jesus, better just slashing the price or even giving them away to some of those not so well off and getting the stadium filled (and selling stuff) than there being large empty areas. Nuts
 

Dave68124

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What's disappointing is that the show has become more important than the competition. I just don't see the utility of bankrupting host countries for an event that lasts 2 weeks. I am starting to think our generation is even worse than the X and Y gens. X & Y gens are lazy, entitled little brats. We are the parents that kept on pushing the excess in everything and making them that way. Unfortunately the Olympics has taken on our character as parents.
 

Michael Dorosh

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I just don't see the utility of bankrupting host countries for an event that lasts 2 weeks.
President of the IOC gets over $200,000 USD annually. That's not his salary, that's his allowances and per diem costs over and above a salary that would get him on just about anyone's Sunshine List.

Like you, though, I don't know why anyone else buys into it. My hometown voted down a proposal to bid on the winter Olympics. (We hosted in 1988). After City Hall spent a million bucks on a fact-finding project (Calgary Bid Exploration Committee), the matter was put to the electorate, and we soundly said thanks, but no thanks, we don't want the Olympics here again. I've never been prouder of my city.

 

Ric of The LBC

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What's disappointing is that the show has become more important than the competition. I just don't see the utility of bankrupting host countries for an event that lasts 2 weeks. I am starting to think our generation is even worse than the X and Y gens. X & Y gens are lazy, entitled little brats. We are the parents that kept on pushing the excess in everything and making them that way. Unfortunately the Olympics has taken on our character as parents.
I think you have Gen X wrong.
 

Michael Dorosh

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And a couple weeks after Ric's post, the whole world shut down making the conversation moot....will see what happens in 2021 vis a vis the Olympics.
 

souza13alex

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Based on the increasing number of diseases in the world, it is not a fact that we will see the Olympic Games next year.
 

MichalS

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Or they'll start to get cycled around countries already with the infrastructure.
Or authoritarian countries, where the Olympics become a project of improving public image vis a vis the international community at huge costs to the home population (not to speak of additional opportunity to stomp down on civil activists).
 

Martin Mayers

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Or authoritarian countries, where the Olympics become a project of improving public image vis a vis the international community at huge costs to the home population (not to speak of additional opportunity to stomp down on civil activists).
Afghanistan preparing a bid as we speak?

:)
 

Michael Dorosh

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Afghanistan preparing a bid as we speak?

:)
That's not as crazy as it sounds. They can sell off those armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia (why not? Canada did the same with its old armoured vehicles) or fledgling nation states in Africa (Canada sold to them too) and use the money for some infrastructure.

We all know who hosted in 1936.
 

csiemers

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I've watched the Olympics for over 40 years, until this year. The Olympics had been my only sports that I'd watch or follow.
It's gotten to be that business takes priority over the athletes and don't even get me started on the prima donna athletes. It has turned me away likely never to watch again.
 

Michael R

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I haven’t been a fan of spectator sports since my adolescence. To me, it is all a big business to make a lot of money for a very small number of people. I understand to some extent why people watch it, but it all seems pretty wasteful.
 

Martin Mayers

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I haven’t been a fan of spectator sports since my adolescence. To me, it is all a big business to make a lot of money for a very small number of people. I understand to some extent why people watch it, but it all seems pretty wasteful.
Find a different sport mate or follow a team at a different level.

I can promise you that the football I follow in the UK isn't "big business". But, just as exciting (even if of a lower quality).
 

Pte Parts

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Many suspect that dominant countries' athletes use drugs or other performance enhancers that just are not yet detectable, so why not restore interest in the Olympics by having a competition where all performance enhancers are allowed. Cybernetics anyone? Sure the athletes may die 2 weeks after returning home, but I still reckon you would have people lining up despite the risks for a chance at the glory.
 

bendizoid

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very dangerous. Notice how he drops the kid on croncrete after he carried him off the field. Not good
 
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